Acts 10:44-end; John 15:9-17
‘I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.’
I want to speak this morning about joy.
Now I realise that you might consider this a rather suboptimal time to be considering such a topic. If you are waiting for results from hospital tests, sweating away for exams, coping with broken sleep, living with anxiety about where your next meal is coming from, just pushing through, the idea of joy might seem beyond reach. And that’s before we even get to the local and global challenges that confront us as we engage with the news. Joy – today? How about the theme of just coping?
However, when Jesus spoke those words I have just quoted, the disciples were experiencing their own suboptimal time. As they sat listening to Jesus in the Upper Room, the future was looking very dark. Not much was clear but there loomed the prospect of Jesus leaving them, with all the danger, risk and uncertainty that involved. So I can’t imagine joy was something they felt naturally full of.
But here’s the key thing that Jesus is saying. Joy isn’t something the disciples have got to manufacture for themselves, as if this could be done by pulling their biggest grin and singing the Aramaic equivalent of ‘I’m H-A-P-P-Y’. Jesus said to them ‘I have said these things so that my joy may in you.’ Joy isn’t something they make; it is something they receive from Jesus.
In his wonderful commentary on John’s gospel, the theologian David Ford highlights the fact that for John it is the small words that do so much of the heavy lifting. ‘As’, ‘so’, and here ‘in’. ‘My joy may be in you.’ Jesus is painting for the disciples a picture of the Christian life that is not focussed simply on believing certain things or living in a certain way. Rather Jesus is describing what it will be to have the life of Christ in them, even when he is physically absent. It is the joy of Jesus that will fill their hearts and make their joy complete.
We might well listen in on these words, for if Jesus said them to the disciples in the Upper Room, we can be sure he is saying them to us now. We find here a wonderful reminder – or perhaps an invitation to see for the first time – that our leading the Christian life is nothing less than receiving the life of Christ in us.
So we might ask: what are these things that Jesus is saying that might contribute to the disciples – and us today – receiving the life – and specifically the joy - of Christ in our lives?
First, there is the joy of being loved. ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you’, says Jesus. What an extraordinary thought! The eternal, unconditional love of the Father for the Son flows through to us. This love does not have to be earned, and it cannot be turned off. It is a love that will take Jesus to the cross to show that love to the full.
You can think of it like this. Do you remember Tuesday this week past? If you were in Durham you would have enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. Perhaps like me you had some time just sitting in the sun remembering what it feels like to feel the warm rays on your face. It’s been a while, after all.
The joy of being loved is taking that unconditional, eternal love of God and breathing it in. What Jesus calls abiding in his love.
Second, there is joy in being called friends. Jesus says, ‘I do not call you servants…but I have called you friends’. Friendship in the ancient world was a precious thing. It wasn’t something cheaply given, as we might accept a Facebook friend or follow someone on social media. It was a sign of commitment and mutual respect. It involved mutual self-giving.
Jesus called his disciples – and calls us – his friends not because we are matey-matey but because he shares his life with us. We are not simply told to do things like a master would do to a servant. Rather we are brought close to Christ through him sharing his life with us.
A vital way this takes place is through the gift of the Holy Spirit, about whom Jesus has already spoken to his disciples. The Holy Spirit takes the life of Christ and brings it into our lives. The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth so that we can know what a friend might know.
Our first reading from Acts 10 narrated that extraordinary moment when Peter and his companions saw the Holy Spirit fall upon the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house. It was a clear demonstration that Jesus had called them friends too. Here was the life of Christ. Here was knowledge of God’s truth.
Being called friends by Jesus is an invitation to come close. In our waiting, in our revising, in our coping, in our worrying, in our pushing through, there is joy to be received in drawing close to the one who has called us friends. It is not happiness. It is much deeper than that. And it may not make us smile. But it will say to us that we are safe in the friendship of Christ.
Third, there is joy in bearing fruit. ‘I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last’, says Jesus. What is so remarkable about the life of Christ in us, and what differentiates it from other forms of meditation and spirituality, is that it is not all about us. It is not meant to stop with us, but rather flow through us.
For the farmer the main event is not planting the seed, but rather seeing the fruit. Likewise a key source of joy in the Christian life is being aware of Christ’s life bearing fruit in our lives as we are used by God to build God’s kingdom.
There is joy in loving others because Christ has loved us. There is joy in being generous to others as God has been with us. On this Rogation Day we will offer the foodbank gifts not simply out of concern for those in need but as a sign of Christ’s life bearing fruit in our lives. God loves us a joyful giver.
‘I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.’
As we come to the Lord’s table this morning and recall his sacrifice once for all upon the cross, may we know the joy of being loved.
As we draw near and receive bread and wine may we know the joy of being called friends and, being partakers in the body and blood of Christ, receive afresh the life of Christ in us.
As we return to our places may we know the joy of bearing fruit, letting the life of Christ flow through us in love and generosity and mercy and peace, so that our joy, and the joy of others we serve amongst, might be complete.
The Very Revd Dr Philip Plyming